shewed thee O man what is good and wilt thou not believe him fath is the substance of things not seen and though they be not seen yet they are evident the Meanes evident and the End as evident as the Meanes In our sad and sober thoughts when we talk like speculative men as evident as what is open to the eye But such an evidence we have which a covetous man would soon lay hold on for a title to a faire inheritance and the ambitious for an assignment of some great place for if such a record had been transmitted to posterity if the Scripture which conveighs this Good had entailed some rich Mannor or Lordship upon them it should have then found an easie belief and been Gospel a sure word of prophecy unquestionable undoubtable like the decrees of the Medes and Persians which must stand fast for ever and cannot be altered for too many there be who had rather have their names in a good leaf then in the book of life and this is the reason why we are so ignorant of that which is good indeed and so great clerks in that which is calted good but by the worst why we are so dull and indocile in apprehending that wisdome which is from above and so wise and witty to our own damnation why we do but darkly see this Good which is so plainly shewed unto us What shall we say then nay what saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest in sloth and idlenesse thou that sleepest in a tempest in the midst of thy unruly and turbulent passions arise from the grave and sepulchre wherein thy sloth hath intomb'd thee arise from the dead from that nasty charnel-house of rotten bones where so many vitious habits have shut thee up break up thy monument cast aside every weight and every sinne that presseth down and rise up and be but a man improve thy reason to thy best advantage and this Good shall shine upon thee with all its beames and brightnesse and Christ shall give thee light if not to see things to come to satisfy thy curiosity yet to see things to come which shall fill thy soul as with marrow and fatnesse if not to know the uncertain yet certain wayes of Gods providence yet to know the certain and infallible way to blisse if not to know things too high for thee yet to know that which shall exalt thee to heavenly places in Christ Jesus He hath shewn thee O man what is Good doest thou see it doest thou believe it thou shalt see greater things then these thou shalt see what thou doest believe enjoy what thou doest but hope for thou shalt see God who hath shewed thee this Good that thou mightest see him thou shalt then have a more exact knowledg of his wayes and providence a fuller taste of his love and goodnesse a clearer sight of his beauty and majesty and with all his Angels and all his Saints behold his glory for evermore Thus much of this Good as it is an object to be lookt on we shall in the next place consider it as a Law Quid requirit what doth the Lord require HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Three and Twentieth SERMON PART III. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly c. HE hath shewed thee O man what is good what it is thou wert made for even that which is fitted and proportioned to thy soul that which is lovely and amiable and so a fit object to look on that which will fill and satisfy the soul and turn the greatest evil the world can lay as a stone of offence in our way into good and raise it self upon it to its highest pitch of glory and this he hath made plain and manifest drawn out in so visible a character that thou mayest run and read it And thus far we have already brought you We must yet lead you further even to the foot of mount Sinai what doth the Lord require of thee which is as the publication of it and making it a law For with the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the Trumpet and the voice of words this voice was heard I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord It is the Prophets Warrant or Commission I the Lord have spoken it is a seal to the Law By this every word shall stand by this every Law is of force It is a word of power and command and authority for he that can doe what he will may also require what he will in heaven or in earth So then If he be the Lord he may require it and in this one word in this Monosyllable all power in heaven and in earth is contained For in calling him Lord he assignes unto him an absolute will which must be the rule of our will and of all the actions which are the effects and works of our will and issue from it as from their first principle and mover And this his will is attended 1. with Power 2. with Wisdome 3. with Love 1. By his power he made us 2. he protects and preserves us and from this issues his legislative power 3. as by his Wisdome he made us so by the same wisdome he gives us such a Law which shall sweetly and certainly lead us to that End for which he made us And last of all his Love it is to the work of his own hands thus to lead us And all these are shut up in this one word Lord. And let us view and consider these and so look upon them as to draw down their influence and vertue into our souls which may work that obedience in us which this Lord requires and will reward And 1. Quid requirit Dominus what doth the Lord require It is the Lord requires it and I need not trouble you with a recitall of those places of Scripture where God is called the Lord. For if the Scripture be as the Heaven this is a Star of the greatest magnitude and spreads its beams of Majesty and power in the eyes of all men and to require is the very form of a Law I will I require if power speak It is a law It will be more apposite and agreeable to our purpose that we may the more willingly embrace and entertain this Good which is publisht as a law to look upon this word Lord as it expresses the Majesty and greatnesse of God for he is therefore said to be the Lord because he is omnipotent and can do all things that he will He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen a vast and boundlesse Ocean of essence and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boundlesse and infinite sea of power Take the highest pitch of Dominion and Lordship that our imagination can reach yet it falls short of his who is Lord of Lords to whom all earthly Majesty must vaile and at whose feet all Princes lay down their Crowns
in the very nature and constitution of the Church and it is as impossible to be a part of the Church without it as it is to be a man without the use of reason nay we so far come short of being men as we are defective in humanity All Christians are the parts of the Church and all must sustaine one another and this is the just and full Interpretation of that of our Saviour Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and then thou wilt pity him as thy self Tolle invidiam tuum est quod habet Take away envy and all that he hath is thine and take away hardnesse of heart and all that thou hast is his Take away malice and all his virtues are thine and take away pride and thy Glories are his Art thou a part of the Church thou hast a part in every port and every part hath a portion in thee We are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compacted together by that which every joynt supplies Eph. 4.16 a similitude and resemblance taken from the curtaines in the Temple saith learned Grotius Exod. 26. whereof every one hath its measure but yet they are all coupled together one to another v. 3. and by their loops which lay hold one of another v. 5. and like those curtains not to be drawn but together not to rejoyce not to weep not to suffer but together The word Church is but as a second notion and it is made a terme of art and every man almost saith Luther abuseth it draws it forth after his own image takes it commonly in that sense which may favour him so far as to leave in him a perswasion that he is a true part of it and thus many enter the Church and are shut out of heaven We are told of a visible Church and the Church in some sense is visible but that the greatest part of this Church hath wanted bowells that some parts of it have been without sense or feeling besmered and defiled with the blood of their brethren is as visible as the Church We have heard of an infallible Church we have heard it and believe it not for how can she be infallible who is so ready to design all those to death and hell who deny it If it be a Church it is a Church with hornes to push at the nations or an army with banners and swords we have long talked of a Reformed Church and we make it our crown and rejoycing but it would concern us to look about us and take heed That we do not reforme so as to purge out all compassion also for cercainly to put off all bowells is not as some zelots have easily perswaded themselves to put on the new man Talk not of a visible Infallible or a Reformed Church God send us a Compassionate Church a title which will more fit and become her then those names which do not beautifie and adorne but accuse and condemn her when she hath no heart What visible Church is that which is seen in blood what infallible Church is that whose very bowels are cruell what reformed Church is that which hath purged out all compassion visible and yet not seen infallible and deceived reformed and yet in its filth Monstrum Horrendum Informe This is a mishapen monster not a Church The True Church is made up of bowells every part of it is tender and relenting not onely when it self is touch'd but when the others are moved as you see in a well-set instrument if you touch but one string the others will tremble and shake And this sence this fellow-feeling is the fountain from whence this silver streame of Mercy flows the spring and first mover of those outward acts which are seen in that bread of ours which floats upon the waters in the face and on the backs of the poore for not then when we see our brethren in affliction when we look upon them and passe by them but when we see them and have compassion on them we shall bind up their wounds and poure in wine and oyle and take care for them For till the heart be melted there will nothing flow We see almes given every day and we call them acts of piety but whether the hand of Mercy reach them forth or no we know not our motions all of them are not from a right spring vain glory may be liberall Intemperance may be liberall Pride may be a benefactor Ambition must not be a Niggard Covetousnesse it self sometimes yeelds and drops a penny and importunity is a wind which will set that wheel a going which had otherwise stood still We may read large catalogues of munificent men but many names which we read there may be but the names of men and not of the Mercifull compassion is the inward and true principle begetting in us the love of Mercy which compleats and perfects and crownes every act gives it its true forme and denomination gives a sweet smell and fragrant savour to Maryes oyntment for she that poured it forth loved much Luk. 7.47 I may say compassion is the love of the Mercy plus est diligere quà m facere saith Hilary It is a great deal more to love a good work then to do it to love virtue then to bring it into act to love mercy then to shew it it doth supply many times the place of the outward act but without it the act is nothing or something worse It hath a priviledge to bring that upon account which was never done to be entitled to that which we do not which we cannot do to make the weak man strong and the poore man liberall and the ignorant man a counsellor For he that loves mercy would and therefore doth more then he can do as David may be said to build the Temple though he laid not a stone of it for God tells him he did well That he had it in his heart and thus our love may build a Temple though we fall and dye before a stone be laid Now this love of mercy is not so soon wrought in the heart as we may imagine as every glimmering of light doth not make it day It is a work of labour and travell and of curious observance and watchfulnesse over our selves It will cost us many a combate and luctation with the world and the flesh many a falling out with our selves many a love must be digged up by the roots before we can plant this in our hearts for it will not grow up with luxury and wantonnesse with pride or self-love you never see these together in the same soyle The Apostle tells us we must put it on and ◠the garments which adorn the soul are not so soon put on as those which clothe the body we do not put on mercy as we do our mantle for when we do every puffe of wind every distaste blows it away but mercy must be so put on that it may even cleave to the soul and be a part of it
this whole Trinity in our Lord 1. Rationale the Rationall part for he teacheth what he learnt disputes with the Pharisees and instructeth the people in those wayes which reason commends as the best and readiest to lead them to the End 2. Indignativum the Irascible power which breaths it self forth in woes and bitter Invectives against the Scribes and Pharisees 3. Concupiscentivum the Concupiscible Appetite for he desires he earnestly desires to eat the Passeover with his Disciples We may be bold to say and it is Gratitude and not Blasphemy to say it angry he was and joy he did and breath forth his desires and grieve and feare similis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like in all things but with this huge difference In all these no ataxie or disorder not the least stoop nor declination from reason no storme in his Anger no frensie in his joy no woman in his Teares no wanton in his Love no coward in his Feare like unto us in passion but not bowed or misled by passion like unto us In us they are as so many severall winds driving us to severall points and almost at the same time our Fear hath a relish of Hope and our Hope is allayed with some Fear our desires contradict themselves we would and we would not and we know not what we would have our sorrow will ebbe out into Anger our Anger flowes uncertainly sometimes it swells into Joy if it be not checkt and if it be and we misse our end it frets and wasts and consumes it self and is neer lost in that flood of sorrow which it brought in nunquam sumus singuli we are never long the same men but one passion or another rises in us troubles us a while and so makes way for another such a perplexed middle such a lump of contradictions is man Thus it is in us but in him they are straight and even lines drawn to their right center his anger on Sin his love on Piety his joy on the great Work he had to doe his Feare was his Jealousie lest we should fall from him when he grieved it was that others did not so when he seemed most moved in better temper than we are when we pray All our qualities he had which were indetectabiles as the Schooles speak which implyed no defect of Grace nor detracted from his all-sufficient satisfactory righteousnesse poenam sine culpa those affections which might make him sensible of Smart but not obnoxious to Sin and in him they were not properly passions Euseb Episc Thessal apud Phot. Biblioth cod CLXII saith Eusebius Bishop of Thessalonica but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naturall operations which did shew him to all the world as it were with an Ecce Behold the man and thus he condemned sin in the flesh Rom. v. 3. that is in those punishments which his flesh endured he that tells us he was like unto us in all things brings in his exception at the fourth chap. v. 3 yet without sin for his miraculous conception by the holy Ghost was a sure and invincible Antidote against that poyson of the Serpent and so presented him an innocent and spotlesse Lambe fit for a Sacrifice We have now filled up S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and found our Captaine God and Man Christ Jesus like unto us in all things we have beheld him in intimis naturae in the very bowels as it were and entrailes of our nature nay in sordibus naturae in the vilenesse of our Nature searching and purging the whole Circle and compasse of it and working out our corruption from the very root we have consider'd him in that height which no mortall eye can reach in his Divine nature and we have lookt upon him where he might be seen and heard and felt in his Humane nature we must now with a reverent and fearfull hand but touch at the passive sieri which points out to the union of both the Natures in one Person the Apostle tels us Debuit fieri similis That it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren And to the apprehension of this union as to the knowledge of God we are led by weak and faint representations drawn from sensible things and we are led by negations the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quomodo is best answered by non hoc modo not after this manner Factus est he was made like unto us t is true but not so as flesh and Bloud may imagine or a wanton and busie wit conceive not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil not by any mutation of his divine essence Basil de Hum. Christi Gen. sine periculo status sui saith Tertull. without any danger of the least alteration of his state his glory did not take from him the forme of a servant nor did this Assimilation lessen or alter him in that by which he was equall to his Father nor did the mystery of godlinesse bring any detriment to the Deity G. Nyssen calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Tertullian Deum carne mixtum in his Apologie and Austin Greg. Nyssen Cath. or c. 27. and Cyprian and Irenaeus use the same phrase a God mixt with our nature but not so as a drop of water cast into a vessel of wine and turned into that substance in which it is lost as Eutyches fancied but as the soule and body though two distinct Natures grow into one man so did the Godhead assume the manhood without confusion of the Nature or distinction of the persons united as the Sunne and the light saith Justin Martyr as a graft to a plant say others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as in a fiery sword there are two distinct Natures the fire and the sword two distinct acts to cut and to burne and two distinct effects cutting and Burning from whence ariseth one common effect to cut burning and to burne cutting all which with all the representations which the wit of man can find out cannot expresse it but leave us in our gaze and wonder whilst the manner of it is hid from our eyes and removed further out of sight then when we first lookt after it Those beasts which came too neer to this mountaine this high mystery were strucken through with a Dart and staggerd in the very attempt and left to walk uncertainly in that mist and darknesse which their too daring curiosity had cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Nazianzen Naz. orat 26. hot and busie wits they were Arius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a subtill sophister Nestorius of a quick wit and voluble tongue Apollinarius the stoutest Champion the Church had against Arius in comparison of whom some thought the great Athanasius to be but a child in understanding not to mention Cer inthus Valentinus Eutiches these pressing too forward upon this great mystery were struck blind at the doore and running contrary wayes met all in this that they ran
the hazard of their own soules and of that which should be as deare to them the peace of the Church Be not then too inquisitive to find out the manner of this union for the holy Father seales up thy lips that thou mayst not once think of Asking the question Just Mart. and tells thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou art not like to meet with an answer and what greater folly can there be then to attempt to do that which cannot be done or to search for that which is past finding out or to be ever a beginning and never make an end Search the scriptures for they are they that testifie of him testifie that he was God blessed for evermore that that word which was Godw as also made flesh that he was the Son of God and the Sonne of man the manner how the two Natures are united is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ib. unsearchable unfoordable and the knowledge of it if our narrow understandings could receive it would not adde one haire to our stature and growth in Grace that he is God and man that the two Natures are united in one person who is thy Saviour and mediator is enough for thee to know and to rayse thy nature up to him Take the words as they lye in their Native purity and simplicity and not as they are hammered and beat out and stampt by every hand by those who will be Fathers not Interpreters of Scripture and beget what sense they please and present it not as their own but as a child of God Then Lo here is Christ and there is Christ this is Christ and that is Christ thou shalt see many images and characters of him but not one that is like him an imperfect Christ a half Christ a created Christ a fancied Christ a Christ that is not the Son of God and a Christ that is not the Son of Man and thus be rowled up and down in uncertainties and left to the poore and miserable comfort of Conjecture in that which so far as it concerns us is so plain and easie to be known Doe thoughts arise in thy heart do doubts and difficulties beset thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justin Martyr thy Faith is the solution and will soon quit thee of them and cast them by thy Faith not assumed or insinuated into thee or brought in as thy vices may be by thy education but raised upon a holy hill a sure foundation the plain and expresse Word of God and upheld and strengthned by the Spirit Christian dost thou believe Thou hast then seen thy God in the Flesh from Eternity yet born Invisible yet seen Immense and circumscribed Immortall yet dying the Lord of life and Crucified God and man Christ Jesus Amaze not thy self with an inordinate feare of undervaluing thy Saviour wrong not his love and call it thy Reverence why should thoughts arise in thy Heart his power is not the lesse because his mercy is great nor doth his infinite love shadow or detract from his Majesty for see He counts it no disparagement to be seen in our flesh nor to be at any losse by being thus like us our Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a Decorum in it and it behoved him to be like unto his Brethren Debuit It behoved him That Christ was made like unto us is the joy of this Feast but that he ought to be is the wonder and extasy of our joy that he would descend is mercy but that he must is our astonishment Oportet and Debet are binding termes and words of Duty Had our Apostle said It behoved us that he should be made like unto us it had found an easy belief the debuit had been placed in loco suo in its proper place on a sweating brow on dust and putrefaction on the face of a captive All will say it Behoved us much but to put a Debet upon the Son of God to make it a Decorum a beseeming thing for him to become Flesh to be made like unto us to set a Rubie in Clay a Diamond in Brasse a Chrysolet in baser Metall and say it is placed well there to worry the Lambs for the Wolf to take the Master by the throat for the Debt of a Prodigall and with an Oportet to say it should be so to give a gift and call it a Debt is not out usuall language on earth on Earth it is not but in Heaven it is the proper Dialect fixed up in Capitall letters on the Mercy Seat the joy of this Feast the Angels Antheme Salvator Natus a Saviour is born and if he will be a Saviour an Undertaker a Surety such is the Nature of Fidejussion and Suretiship debet he must it behoveth him as deeply engaged as the party whose surety he is And let us look on the aptnesse of the meanes and we shall soon find that this Foolishnesse of God as the Apostle calls it is wiser than men and this weaknesse of God is stronger than men 1 Cor. 1.25 that the oportet is right set For medio existente conjunguntur extrema if you will have extremes to meet you must have a middle line to draw them together and behold here they meet and are made unum one Ephes 2.14 saith the Apostle the proprieties of either Nature being entire and yet meeting and concentring themselves as it were in one person Majesty puts on Humility Power Infirmity Eternity Mortality by the one he dyes for us by the other he riseth again by the one he suffers as Man by the other he conquers as God in them both he perfects and consummates the great work of our redemption And this Debuit reacheth home to each part of my Text to Christ as God The same hand that made the vessell when it was broken and so broken that there was not one sherd left to fetch water at any pit to repaire and set it together again that it may receive and contain the water of life ut qui fecit nos reficeret that our Creation and Salvation should be wrought by the same hand and turned about upon the same wheele Next we may set the debuit upon his person and he is media persona a middle person and the office will best fit him even the office of a Mediator and then as he is the Son of God who is the Image of the Father and most proper it may seem to him to repair that Image which was defaced and well neere lost in us For we had not onely blemished this Image but set the Devils face and superscription upon Gods coyne for Righteousnesse there was Sin for Purity Pollution for Beauty Deformity for Rectitude Perversenesse for the Man a Beast scarce any thing left by which he might know us venit filius ut iterum signet the Son comes and with his blood revives again the first character marks us with his owne signature imprints the Graces of
Vanities find out one thing that is necessary if you can though you search it as the Prophet speaks with Candles Is it necessary to be rich Behold Dives in Hell and Lazarus in Abrahams Bosom Is it necessary to be Noble Not many noble are chosen Is it necessary to be Learned where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Every thing hath its Necessity from us not from it self for of it self it cannot shew any thing that should make it so It is we that file these chaines and fashion these nayles of Necessity and make her hand of Brasse Riches are necessary because we are covetous Honour is necessary because we are proud and love to have the preheminence Pleasure is necessary because we love it more than God Revenge is necessary because we delight in blood Lord how many Necessaries do we make when there is but one one sine quo non debemus without which we ought not and sine quo non possumus without which we cannot be happy and that is our assimilation and being made like unto Christ in whom alone all the Treasuries of Wisdome and Riches and Honour all that is necessary for us are to be found And now to conclude we have two Nativities Christs Nativity and ours he made like unto us by a miraculous Conception and we again made like unto him by the same spirit of Regeneration ad illum pertinuit propter nos nasci ad nos propter illum renasci saith S. Austin his love it was to be born for us and our Duty it is to give him Birth for Birth and to be born again in him And then as thou art merry at his Feast he will rejoyce at thine even celebrate thy birth-day Come let us rejoyce saith he and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was meet we should make merry for these my brethren were dead but are alive they were lost but they are found they were like unto the Beasts that perish but they are now made like unto me And 's as Christ had an Antheme at his Birth a full quire of the Heavenly Host praysing God so shall we at ours Joy and Triumph at the birth of a Christian at his assimilation to Christ for every reall resemblance of Christ is an Angels feast and Angels and Archangels and Dominations and Powers shall triumph at these our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an this Feast of our Regeneration and be glad spectators of our growth in Christ rejoyce to see us of the same mind every day liker and liker to him till we grow to ripenesse and maturity to be perfect men in Christ Jesus and being made like unto him at last be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equall to the Angels and with Angels and Archangels and all the Company of Heaven cry aloud saying Salvation Honour Power Thanksgiving be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to him that was made like unto us even to the Lamb for evermore Amen HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Good-Friday ROM 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things The Introduction GOds benefits come not alone but one gift is the pledge of another the grant of a mite the assignment of a Talent a drop of dew from Heaven is a Prognostique of a gracious showre which nothing can draw dry but Ingratitude the Father might well say S. Dionys. de divin Nom. p. 200. that the love of God was as a constant and endlesse Circle from Good to Good in Good without error or inconstancy rowling and carrying it self about in an everlasting gyre He spared not but delivered up his sonne for us all saith the Text but how many gifts did usher in this for he gave him often in the Creation of the world for by him were all things made and without him was made nothing that was made when God gives Joh. 1.3 he gives his Sonne for as we ask so he gives in his name whatsoever we ask every action of God is a gift and every gift a tender of his Sonne an art to make us capable of more Thus the Argument of Gods love is drawn à minori ad majus from that which seems little to that which is greater from a Grain to a Harvest from one Blessing to a Myriad from Heaven to thy Soul and from thy Creation to thy Redemption from his Actions to his Passion which is the true authentique instrument of his love Here his love was in its Zenith in its Verticall point and in a direct line casts its rayes of comfort on his lost Creature Here the Argument is at the highest and S. Paul drawes it down à majori ad minus and the Conclusion is full full of all comfort to all He that gives a Talent will certainly give a Mite he that gives his Son wil also give Salvation and he that gives Salvation will give all things which may work it out qui tradidit he that delivered his Son is followed with a quomodo non how shall he not with him give us all things quomodo non It is impossible it should be otherwise so that Christ comes not naked but clothed with Blessings he comes not empty but with the Riches of Heaven with the Treasuries of Wisdom and Happinesse Christ comes not alone but with troops of Angels with glorious Promises and Blessings nay to make good the quomodo non to make it unanswerable unquestionable It is his Nakednesse that clotheth us his Poverty that enricheth us his no Reputation that ennobles us his minoration that makes us great and his Exinanition his emptying himself that fills us and the tradidit is an instrument of conveyance his being delivered for us delivers to us the possession of all things Qui non pepercit who spared not his owne Son but delivered him c. In which words there is a cloud and a cloud of Blood the cloud of Christs Passion for so most interpreters in plain termes expound the tradere by in mortem exponere making his delivery to be nothing else but an exposing him to shame and misery and death we need not stand upon it a tradidit were enough for he is no sooner out of his hands but he becomes a man of sorrowes a tradidit were enough but here is a non pepercit he spared him not so spared him not that he delivered him up and so delivered him up that he spared him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same thing expressed by two severall words to make it sure A cloud then there is and a cloud of Blood but it distills in a sweet showre of Blessings and we see a light in this cloud by which we may draw that saving conclusion quomodo non How shall he not with him give us all things Here then is an assignment made to Man-kind 1. Christ given 2. Given for us all and last
alone but would not but wrought him out of the Earth and was the Potter which formed and shaped him out of the Clay with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send a Moyses an Angel a Cherubin or Seraphim but tradidit proprium filium delivered up his own Son in this delivery gave a price infinitely above that which he brought motal sinfull men which were of no value at all but that he made them and he payes down not a Talent for a Talent but a Talent for a Mite for Nothing for that which had made it self worse than nothing his Son for those who stood guilty of Rebellion against him and his love for the world which was at enmity with him And thus he was pleased to buy his own will and love in us and by this his infinite love to bound as it were his infinite power his infinite wisdome and his illimited will for here his power his wisdome his will may seem to have found a non ultra he cannot do he cannot find our he cannot wish for us more than what he hath done in the delivery of his Son And now if we ask what moved his will not sure any lovelinesse or attractivenesse in the object there was nothing to be seen but loathsomnesse and deformity and that enmity which might sooner move him to wrath than compassion and make him rather send down fire and brimstone then his Son That which moved him was in himself not to be found in the world which stood out against him and when he did come would not receive him but was bound up in his own bowels of mercy and compassion he loved us in our blood and loving us he bid us live and that we might live delivered up his own Son to death For his mercy was the Orator to move his will and being mercifull he was also willing to help us Mercy is all our plea and it was his motive and wrought in him a will a cheerful will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint James it rejoyceth against Judgement though we had forgot our Duty yet would not he forget his Mercy but hearkned to it and would not continere misericordias Psâ—l 77 â— shut up his tender mercies in Anger which is a Metaphor taken from martiall affaires for in a siege an Army doth compasse in a Town or Castle that they may play upon it in every place the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shut it up as in a net This is it which the Prophet David calls claudere or continere to shut up his mercy in anger the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make a trench about it and besiege it Now the goodnesse of God and his love to his Creature would not suffer him thus to shut up his tender Mercies as a Fort or Town is shut up to be undermined and beat upon and overcome but as the besieged many times make sallyes upon the enemy so the love and mercy of our God brake forth even through his anger and gained a conquest against the legions of his wrath Let the World be impure let Men be sinners let Justice be importunate let Power be formidable and Vengeance ready to fall yet all must fall back and yield to the Mercy and Love of God which cannot be overcome nor bound nor shut up but will break forth and make way through all opposition through sin and all the powers of darknesse which besiege and compasse it about and will raise the siege drive off and chase away these Enemies and to conquer Sin will deliver up his Son for the Sinner And this was aenigma amoris saith Aquinas this was the riddle or rather the mystery of his love to pose the wisdome of the world I may say being Love and infinite it is no riddle at all but plain and easie for what can love doe that is strange what can it doe amisse that which moved him to do it shewes plainly that the end for which he did it was very good Dilexit nos he loved us is the best commentary on Tradidit Filium he delivered his Son for us and takes away all scruple and doubt for if we can once love our Enemies it is impossible but that our Bowels should yern towards them and our will be bent and prone to raise them up even to that pitch and condition which our love hath designed and if our love were of that nature Heavenly as he is Heavenly or but in some forward degree proportioned to his we should see nothing that were difficult nothing that were absurd nothing that might misbecome us which might promote or advantage them if our Love have heat in it our Will will be forward and earnest and we shall be ready to lay down our lives for them For Love is like an Artificiall Glasse and when we looke through it an Enemy appears a Friend Disgrace Honour Difficulties Nothing When he saw us weltring in our blood his love was ready to wash us when we ran from him his love ran after us to apprehend us when we fought against him as enemies his love was a Prophet Loe all these may be my children What speak we of Disgrace his Love defends his Majesty and exalts this Humility of his son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Plato Love hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed and by a kind of Law hath this huge advantage to make Bondage Liberty Disgrace Honourable Infirmity Omnipotent who can stand up against Love and say why didst thou this Had Marciou and Photinus and Arrius well weighed the force and priviledge of Love their needlesse fear I may say their bold and irreverent fear would have soon vanished nor would they have denied Christ to be the Son of God quia tradidit because he delivered him up for us but have seen as great glory in his Humility as in his Glory and would have faln down and worshipt God and man even this crucified Lord of life Christ Jesus Love will doe any thing for those whom it looks and stayes upon If you ask a coat it gives the cloak also if you defire her to goe a mile she will goe with you twaine and is never weary though she passe through places of horror and danger if you be in the most loathsome dungeon in the valley and shadow of death she forsakes you not but will go along with you Must the Son of God be delivered Love sends him down Charitas de coelo demisit Christum it was Love that bowed the Heavens when he descended must he suffer Love nayles him to the Crosse and no power could doe it but Love Must he be sacrificed Love calls it a Baptisme coarctatur how is Love straitned till the Sacrifice be slain Must he dye Must the Son of God dye Love calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his perfection Heb. 2.10 So though he be the Son of
with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things we have with Christ and the Apostle doth not onely tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt puts up a quomodo non challenges as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him give us all things And this question addes energy and weight and emphasis and makes the position more positive the affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should more possible for a City upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or Hell to raise it self up to his Mercy-seat than for him to with-hold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome Naz. Or. 36. his Justice his Goodnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his will to deny us any thing In brief if the Earth be not as Iron the Heavens cannot be as Brasse God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable and when he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive when he descends Mercy descends with him in a ful shower of Blessings to make our Souls as the Paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouze up our Hope and in this Light in this Assurance in this Heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the question against all Doubts all Feares all Temptations that may assault us He that sparede not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things The Conclusion And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the Crosse and from thence he looks down and speaks to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit Cathedra docentis the Crosse on which he suffered was the Chaire of his profession and from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience and perfect Obedience an exact art and method of living well drawn out in severall lines so that what was ambitiously said of Homer that if all Sciences were lost they may be found in him may most truly be said of his Crosse and Passion that if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World yet now nailed to the Crosse Let us then with Love and Reverence look upon him whothus looks upon us put on our Crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrys every Vertue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord and draw the picture of a Crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth for Gods Glory and our Salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thred are linked together in the same bond of Peace I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runs and it runs on evenly in a stream of love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of Glory may come in If you seek Salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your Salvation Thou may'st cry loe here it is or loe there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily exercise the Zelot in the Fire and in the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the profane Libertine in Hell it self Then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the glory of God which shines most gloriously in a Crucified Christ and an Obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the markes of the LORD JESUS To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him that is Believe in his name that is be faithfull to him that is love him and keep his Commandements which is our conformity to his Death and then he will give us what will he give us he will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive him take in Christ take him in his Shame in his Sorrow in his Agony take him hanging on the Crosse take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our Teares with his Blood drag our Sin to the Bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its Face at the fairest presentment it can make and then naile it to the Crosse that it may languish and faint by degrees and give up the Ghost and die in us and then lye down in peace in his Grave and expect a glorious Resurrection to eternall life where we shall receive Christ not in Humility but in Glory and with him all his Riches and Abundance all his glorious Promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternall life HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask of whom speaketh S. John this or who is he that speaks it for we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meanes the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse tells us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God Leâ— 26.11,12 that they might be his people Will ye see his Robes
attributes he hath he is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace of Love of Joy of Zeale for where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coale from the Altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge he makes no shadowes but substances no pictures but realities no appearances but truths a Grace that makes us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith full and unspeakable Love ready to spend it self and zeal to consume us of a true existence being from the spirit of God who alone truly is but here the spirit of Truth yet the same spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begets our Faith cilates our Love works our Joy kindles our Zeal and adopts us in Regiam familiam into the Royall Family of the first-born in Heaven but now the spirit of Truth was more proper for to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and sometimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but Omnis veritas all truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and have the vayle taken from it and be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this spirit of Truth as he thus presents and tenders himself unto us as he stands in opposition to two great enemies to Truth as 1. Dissimulation 2. Flattery and then as he is true in the lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he comes And first dissemble he doth not he cannot for dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us it brings in the Divel in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend it speakes the language of the Priest at Delphos playes in ambiguities promises life As to King 〈◊〉 who a 〈…〉 slew when death is neerest and bids us beware of a chariot when it means a sword No this spirit is an enemy to this because a spirit of truth and hates these in volucra dissimulationis this folding and involvednesse these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others and they by whom he speaks are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftinesse not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully 2 Cor. 4.2 Eph. 4.14 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the slight of men throwing a Die what cast you would have them noting their Doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of Heaven Wisdom 1.5 when their thoughts are in their purse This holy spirit of Truth flies all such deceit and removes himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words there is nothing of the Divels method nothing of the Die or hand no windings nor turnings in what he teacheth but verus vera dicit being a spirit of truth he speaks the truth and nothing but he truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot the inseparable mark and character of the evill spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smiles upon us that he may rage against us lifts us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foiles whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds for flattery is as a glasse for a fool to look upon and so become more fool than before it is the fools eccho by which he hears himself at the rebound and thinks the wiseman spoke unto him and it proceeds from the father of lies not from the spirit of truth who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever who reproves drunkennesse though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter and layes our sins in order before us his precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement he calls Adam from behind the bush strikes Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit deprives him of his own Thy excuse to him is a libell thy pretence fouler than thy sin thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godlinesse open impiety and where he enters the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removes it self heaves and pants to go out knocks at our breast and runs down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becomes our torment In a word he is a spirit of truth and neither dissembles to decieve us nor flatters that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being truth it self tells us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by-paths of errour and misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appears is visible in those lessons and precepts which he gives which are so harmonious so consonant so agreeing with themselves and so consonant and agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repaire it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion measure like unto him that made it for this spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Feare in confidence nor shake our confidence when he bids us feare doth not set up meeknesse to abate our zeale nor kindles zeale to consume our meeknesse doth not teach Christian liberty to shake off obedience to Government nor prescribes obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian liberty This spirit is a spirit of truth and never different from himself never contradicts himself but is equall in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and that which thou runnâ—st from in that which will rayse thy spirit and that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I would saith he Naz. Or. 20. there were no precedency no priority no dignities in the Church but that mens estimation did onely rise from vertue but now the right hand and the left the higher and the lower place these terms of difference have led men not into the truth but into that ditch where Errour mudds it self Caeca avaritia saith Maximus covetousness and ambition are blind and cannot look upon the truth though she be as manifest as the sun at noon and it fares with men in the lust of their eyes in the love of the world as it did with the man in Artemidorus who dreamt he had eyes of gold and the next day lost them had them both put out for now no smell is sweet but that of lucre no sight delightfull but of the wedge of gold and so by a strange kind of Chymistry they turn Religion into Gold and even by Scripture it self heap up Riches and so they lose their sight and judgement and savour not the things of God but are stark blind to that truth which should save them But now grant that they were indeed perswaded of the truth of that which they defend with so much noyse and tumult yet this may be but opinion and fancy which the love of the world will soon build up because it helps to nourish it and how can we think that the spirit did lead them in those wayes in which self love and desire of gaine did drive on so furiously for sure the spirit of truth cannot work in that building where such Sanballats laugh him to scorne Now all these are the very cords of vanity by which we are drawn from the truth and must be broken asunder before the spirit will lead us to it for he leads us not over the Mountaines nor through the bowells of the Earth nor through the numerous Atomes of our vaine and uncertaine and perplext imaginations but as the wisdome which he teacheth so is the method of his Discipline pure peaceable Jam. 3.17 and gentle without partiality without hypocrisie and hath no savour or relish of the Earth for he leads the pure he leads the peaceable he leads the humble In a word he leads those who are lovers of peace and truth Conclus And now to draw towards aconclusion will you know the wayes in which the Spirit walks and by which he leads us will you know the rules we must observe if we will be the Spirits Schollars I will be bold to give them you from one who was a great lover of truth even Galen the Physician I can but name them for the time will not suffer me to insist they are but four the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of Truth the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of Industry a frequent meditation of the truth the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an orderly and methodicall proceeding in the pursuit of Truth the last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercitation and our conformity to the truth in our conversation And this gold though it be brought from Ophir yet may it be usefull to adorn and beautifie those who are the living temples of the holy Ghost And first Love is a passion imprinted in us to this end to urge and carry us forward to the truth and it is the first of all the passions the first of all the operations of the soul the first mover as it were being a strong propension to that we love and which is fitted and proportioned to the mind seeking out the meanes and working forward with all the heat of intention unto the end eminent among the affections calling up my fear my hope my anger my sorrow my fear of not finding out yet in the midst of fear raising a hope to attain to it my sorrow that I find not so soon as I would and my anger at any thing that is averse or contrary at any cloud or difficulty that is placed between me and the truth The love of Christ saith S. Paul constraineth me 2 Cor. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resemblance taken from women in travell constraineth urgeth me worketh in me such a desire as the pain in travell doth in a woman to be dlivered for do we not labour and travell with a conclusion which we would find out and what joy is there when we have like that of a woman in travell when a man-child is brought into the world If you love me keep my commandement John 14.15 saith Christ if you love me not you cannot but if you love me you will certainly keep them Will you know the reason why the wayes of truth are so desolate why so little truth is known when all offers it self and is even importunate with us to receive it there can be no other reason given but this that our hearts are congealed our spirits frozen and we are coldly affected to the truth nay are averse and turn from it this truth crosseth our profit that our pleasure other truths stand in our light obstruct our passage to that we most desire S. Paul speaks plainly If the truth be hid it is hid to them that perish 2 Cor. 4.3,4 in whom the God of this world hath fo blinded their mind that the light of this truth should not shane upon them for if we have eyes to see her she is a fair object as visible as the Sun if we do but love the truth the spirit of truth is ready to take us by the hand and lead us to it but those that withdraw themselves doth his soul hate Now in the next place this love of truth brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of Industry for if we love it it will be alwayes in our thoughts and we shall meditate of it day and night for to love seven yeares are but a few dayes and great burdens are but small and labour is but pleasure and we walk in the region of truth viewing it and delighting in it gathering what may be for our use we walk in it as in a Paradise Truth is best bought when it costs us most and must be wooed oft and seriously and with great devotion as Pythagoras said of the gods Non est salutanda in transitu is not to be spoken with in the By and passage is not content with a glance and slutation and no more but we must behold it with care and anxiety we must make a kind of peregrination out of our selves and must run and sweat to meet it and then this spirit leads us to it And this great encouragement we have that in this our labour we never faile of the end we labour for which we cannot find in our other endeavours and attempts in which we have nothing to uphold us under those burdens which we lay upon our own shoulders but a deceitful hope which carries us along to see it self defeated the frustration whereof
Million what digladiations what Tragedies about these and if every particular Fancy be not pleased the cry is as if Religion were breathing out its last when as true Religion consists not principally in these and these may seem to have been passed over to us rather as favours and Honours and Pledges of his Love then strict and severe Commands That we must wash and eat are Commands but which bring no Burden or hardship with them the performance of them being more easie as no whit repugnant to flesh and blood It is no more but wash and be clean Eat in remembrance of the Greatest Benefit that ever man-kinde received All the difficulty is in the performance of the vow we make in the one and the due preparation of the soul for the other which is the subduing of the lusts and Affections the Beatifying of the inward man which is truely and most properly the service of Christ which is the Ark of our Ark the Glory of our Glory and the Crown of all those outward Advantages which our Lord and Master hath been pleased to afford us Mic. 6.6 we may say with the Prophet Micah wherewith shall we come before the Lord or bow our selves before the High God will he be pleased with the diligence of our ear with our Washing and Eating and answer with him at the eighth verse He hath shewed thee oh man what he doth require to do justly and to love mercy and to walk Humbly with thy God Ite ad locum meum Siolo Goe to my palace in Silo and there learn to disdeceive your selves by their Example lest if all your Religion be shut up with theirs in the Ark all in outward Ceremony and Formality God may strike both us and the Ark we trust to recover and call back those Helps and Gracious advantages from such prodigal usurpers For when all is for the Ark nothing for the God it represents when we make the Pulpit our Ark and chain all Religion to it when the lips of the Preacher which should preserve knowledge and be as a Ship as Basil speaks to conveigh that Truth which is more precious then the Gold of Ophir Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brings nothing but Apes and Peacocks loathsome and ridiculous Fancies when the Hearers must have a Song for a Sermon and that too many times much out of Tune when both Hearer and Speaker act a part as it were upon a stage even till they have their Exit and go out of the World when we will have no other Laver but that of Baptisme no bread but that in the Eucharist when we are such Jewish Christians as to rely on the shell and outside on External formalities and performances more empty and lesse significant lesse effectual then their Ceremonies we have just cause to fear that God may do unto us as he did unto Shilo or as he threatened the same people Amos 8. Send a Famine into the land not a Famine of bread but of Hearing the word and such a famine we may have though our loaves do multiply though Sermons be our dayly Bread that he may deprive us of our Sacraments or deliver them up to Dagon to be polluted by superstition or to be troden under foot by prophaners which of the two is the worst that we may even loath and abhor that in which we have taken so vain so unprofitable so pernicious delight and condemn our selves and our own foul ingratitude and with sorrow and confusion of Face subscribe to this Inscription Dominus est It is the Lord. Concl. And now we have setled the inscription Dominus est it is the Lord upon every particular which may seem at first not so well placed but as the head of Jupiter upon the body of a Tyrant a merciful God plucking up and destroying his own people fighting for the Philistine against the Israelite as if a dead Israelite were of a sweeter savour in his Nostrils then a dead Philistine and the Ark were better placed in the House of Dagon then in his own Tabernacle but look again and consider it aright and you will say it was rightly fixed For the wayes of God are equall Ezek. 18.29 but ours are unequal and nothing but the inequality of our own makes his seem so whilest he remaines the same God in the fire and in the Earth-quake which he was in the still voice the same when he slew them and when his light shined upon their his Justice takes not from his Mercy nor his mercy from the equity of his Justice but he is just when he bindes up and merciful when he wounds us his justice his wisdom his mercy are over all his works The same God that overthrew Pharaoh in the Red sea that slew great and mighty kings did deliver up his own people good and bad did deliver them into their Enemies hands did deliver up the Ark to Dagon for his Justice his wisdom and mercy endure for ever And now having gone along with old Eli in his discovery we cannot but take up his resolution let him do what seemeth him good and we called it Elies use or application of his Doctrine and let us for conclusion make it ours and learn to kisse the Son lest he be angry nay to kisse him to bow before him when he is angry to offer him up a peace-offering our wills of more power then a Hecatomb then all our numerous Fasts and Sermons to appease his wrath and to bring peace and order again into the World that our wills being his being subdued by his Spirit and delivered up into that blessed Captivity to be under his Beck and Command they may stand out against all our natural and carnal desires and check and quiet them which is the truest surrendry we can make and makes us of the same minde with Christ who would not saith Hilary Quod vult of fice did ipsum concedi sibi non vult De Trin. l. 10. have the granted which he would have done did not refuse the Cup but desired it might passe from him that as Saul when he was struck to the ground cryed out Lord what wouldst thou have me do so may we when his hand is upon us in our trembling and astonishment say Lord what wouldst thou have us to suffer Fiat voluntas Thy will be done though it be in our destruction By this we testifie our consent with him this is our friendship with God and they who as Abraham was are Gods friends have idem velle iâ—em nolle will and nill the same things with him are ready Sequi Deum to follow God in all his wayes when he seems to withdraw and when he comes neer us when he shines upon us and when he thunders in what he commands and what he permits in what he absolutely will do and what he makes way for and will suffer to be done to follow him in all Sen. ep 96. and bow before
but not to cut off a mans eare and like unto Saint Paul but himself corrects it with another sicut 1 Cor. 11.1 sicut ego Christi as I am unto Christ Secondly But in the next place if not sicut vidimus as we have seene others then not sicut visumfuerit as it shall seem good in our own eyes for fancy is a wanton unruly froward faculty and in us as in Beasts for the most part supplies the place of reason vulgus ex veritate pauca Pro Rose Comaedo ex opinone multa aestimat saith Tull. the Common people which is the greatest part of mankinde are lead rather by Opinion then by the truth for vulgus is of a larger signification then we usually take it in because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the soul The Irascible and Concupiscible Appetite and so more opinionative then then those who are not so much under their command It is truly said Affectiones sacilè faciunt opiniones our affections will easily raise up opinions for who will not soon fancy that to be true which he would have so which may either fill his hopes or satisfy his lusts or justifie his anger or answer his love or look friendly on that which our wild Passions drive us to Opinion is as a wheele on which the greatest part of the world are turned and wheeled about till they fall off severall waies into severall evills and doe scarce touch at Truth in the way Opinion builds our Church chuseth our Preacher formeth our Discipline frameth our gesture measureth our Prayers Methodizeth our Sermons Opinion doth exhort instruct correct Teaches and commands If it say Goe we goe and if it say Doe this we doe it we call it our conscience and it is our God and hath more worshippers then Truth For though Opinion have a weaker Ground-work then Truth yet she builds higher but it is but Hay and stubble fit for the fire Good God what a Babel may be erected upon a Thought I verily thought saith Saint Paul and what a whirlwind was that thought Act. 26.9 which drove him to Damascus with Letters and to kick against the pricks Shall I tell you it was but Fancy that in Davids time beat downe the carved works with Axes and Hammers It was but a Thought that destroyed the Temple it self that killed the Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and crucified the Lord of life Himself And therefore it will concern us to watch our Fancy and to deal with it as Mothers doe with their children who when they desire that which may hurt them deny them that but to still and quiet them give them some other thing they may delight in take away a Knife and give them an Apple so when our Fancy sports and pleaseth it self with vaine and aery speculations let us suspect and quarrell them and by degrees present unto it the very face of Truth as the Stoick speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. fist and winnow our imaginations bring them to the light and as the devout Schoolman speaks resolve all our effectuall notious by the Accepistis Gers by the Rule and so demolish all those Idolls which our Passions by the help of Fancy have set up for why should such a deceit pass unquestioned why should such an Imposture scape without a marke Thirdly But now if we may not walke sicut visum est as it seemeth good unto us yet we may sicut visum est Spiritui sancto as it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost Yes for that is to walke according to the rule for he speaketh in the word and to walk after the Spirit and to walk by this Rule are one and the same thing but yet the World hath learn'd a cursed Art to set them at distance and when the Word turnes from us and will not be drawn up to our Fancy to carry on our pleasing but vaine imaginations we then appeal to the Spirit wee bring him in either to deny his owne word or which in effect is the same to interpret it against his own meaning and so with Reverence be it spoken make him no better then a Knight of the post to witnesse to a lie This we would doe but cannot for make what noise we will and boast of his Name we are still at visum est nobis it is but Fancy still 't is our own spirit not the Holy Ghost For as there be many false Christs so there are many false spirits and we are commanded not to beleeve 1 Joh. 4.1 but to try them and what can we try them by but by the Rule and as they will say lo here is Christ or there is Christ so they will say Lo here is the spirit and there is the spirit The Pope laies claime to it and the Enthusiast laies claim to it and whoso will may lay claim to it on the same grounds when neither hath any better Argument to prove it by then their bare words no Evidence but what is forg'd in that shop of vanities their Fancy idem Actio Titioque both are alike in this And if the Pope could perswade mee that â—e never open'd his mouth but the spirit spake by him I would then pronounce him Infallible and place him in the chaire and if the Enthusiast could build me up in the same faith and belief of him I would be bold to proclaim the same of him and set him by his side and seek the Law at his mouth would you know the two Grand Impostors of the World which have been in every age and made that desolation which we see on the Earth They are these two A pretended zeal and a pretence of the spirit If I be a Zealot what dare I not doe and when I presume I have the Spirit what dare I not say what Action so foule which these may not authorize what wickedness imaginable which these may not countenance what evill may not these seale for good and what good may they not call evill oh take heed of a false light and too much fire these two have walkt these many Ages about the Earth not with the blessed Spirit which is a light to illuminate and as Fire to purge us but with their father the Devil transform'd into Angels of light and burning Seraphins but have led men upon those Precipices into those works of Darknesse which no night is dark enough to cover Conclus 1. I might here much enlarge my selfe for it is a subject fitter for a Sermon then a part of one and for a Volume then a Sermon but I must conclude And for conclusion let us whilst the light shineth in the world walk on guided by the rule which which will bring us at last to the holy Mount For objects will not come to us but have onely force to move us to come to them Aeternall Happiness is a faire sight and spreads its beames and unvailes its beauty
Love for as my Joy is to have so my Grief is to want what I love and ours may have no better principle then the love of our selves and then it comes à Fumo peccati from the troublesome smoake which finne makes or rather from the very Gall of Bitternesse a Grief begot betwixt Conscience and Lust betwixt the Deformity of sin and the pleasure of sinne betwixt the apprehension of a reall evill and the flattery of a seeming good when I am troubled not that I have sinned but that it is not lawfull to sinne much disquieted within me that that sin which I am unwilling to fly from is a Serpent that will sting me to death That there is Gravell in the Bread of deceit That that unlawfull pleasure which is to me as sweet as Honey should at last bite like a Cockatrice That the wayes in which I walk with delight should lead unto Death That that sinne which I am unwilling to fling off hath such a Troope of Serjants and Executioners at her heels and so it comes à Fumo Gehennae from the smoke of the bottomlesse Pitt from feare of punishment which is farre from a Turne but may prepare mature and ripen us for Repentance But then it may come from the Feare of God wrought in us by the apprehension of his Justice and Mercy and Dominion and Power to Judge both the quick the dead and this Griefe is next to a Turn the next and immediate cause of our Conversion when out of the admiration of his Innocence Majesty and Goodness I am willing to offend my self for offending him and offer up to him some part of my substance the Anguish of my soul the Groanes of Contrition and my teares Anastas Bib. pairum which are ex ipsa nostrâ essentia sicut sanguis martyrum from our being and essence and are offer'd up as the blood of Martyrs Confession of sinne 3. And this Grief will in the third place open our mouthes and force us to a Confession and acknowledgement of our sinnes I mean a sad and serious Acknowledgement which will draw them out Bas in Ps 37. and not suffer them to be pressed downe and settle like foule and putrifyed matter in the bottome of the soule as Basil expresseth it For the least grief is vocall the least displacencie will open our mouthes yea where-there is little sense or none we are ready to complaine and because St. Pauls Humility brought him so low look for an Absolution if we can say what we may truly say but not with St. Pauls Spirit That we are the chiefest of sinners For nothing more easy then to libell our selves where the Bill takes in the whole world and the Best of Saints as well as the worst of sinners How willing are we to confesse with David That we are conceived in sinne and borne in Iniquity how ready to call our selves the Children of wrath and workers of all unrighteousness what delight doe we take to miscall our virtues to finde Infidelity in our Faith wavering in our Hope Pride in our Humility Ignorance in our Knowledge coldness in our Devotion and some degrees of Hostility in our very love of God what can the Devil our great Adversary and Accuser say more of us then we are well pleased to say of our selves But this Acknowledgement is but the product of a lasy knowledge and a faint and momentary disgust and it comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speaks not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. Art c. â— c. 15.1 it is but the calves of our lips not the Sacrifice of our Hearts we breath it forth with noise and words enough we make our sinnes Innumerable more then the haires of our head or the Sands of the Sea-shore but bring us to a particular account and we find nothing but Ciphers some sinnes of daily Incursion some of sudden subreption some minute scarce visible sinnes but not the Figure of any sinne which we think will make up a Number he that will confesse himselfe the chiefe of Sinners upon the most gentle remembrance upon the meekest reprehension will be ready to charge you as a Greater or peradventure Take you by the Throat But this is not that Confession which ushers in Repentance or forwards and promotes our Turne it is rather an Ingredient to make up the Cup of stupefaction which we take downe with Delight and then fall asleep and dreame of safety even when we are on the Brinke and ready to fall into the pitt David 't is true Aug. Hom. 4.1 In his Tribus Sâ—llabis Flammâ— sacrificii ecram â—emino ascenctit in coelum said no more but peccavi and his sinne was Taken away Tantum valent Tres syllabae saith St. Aust such force there was in Three Syllables and can there be virtue in Syllables no man can imagine there can but Davids Heart saith he was now a sacrificing and on these three Syllables the name of that sacrifice was carryed up before the Lord into the highest heavens If our knowledge of our sinnes be cleane and affective if our Grief be reall then our confession and acknowledgement will be hearty our Bowells will sound as a Harpe our Inwards will boyle and not rest our heart will tremble and be Turned within us our Sighes and our Groanes will send forth our words as sad messengers of that Desolation Is 16.11 Job 30.27 which is within Our heart will cry out as well as our Tongue My heart my heart is prepared saith David which is then the best and sweetest Instrument when 't is broken 4. Desire 4. And these three in the fourth place will raise up in us a desire secondly an endevour to shake off these feares and this weight which doth so compasse about and infold us Heb. 12.1 for who is there that doth see his sinnes and weep over them execrate them by his Teares Fletus humanarum necessiatum verecunda execratio Sen. Câ—nt 8.6 and condemn them by his Confession that shall see sin clothed with Death The Law a killing letter the Judge frowning Death ready with his Dart to strike him through who would be such a Beast as to come so neere and Hell opening her mouth to take him in who will not long and groane and travaile in paine and cry out to be delivered from this body of Death Quissub tali conscientiâ c who would live under such a Conscience which is ever galling and gnawing him what Prisoner that feels his Fetters would not shakethem off certainly he that can stand out against all these Terrours and Amazements he that can thwart and resist his knowledge wipe off his Teares and fling off his sorrow and baffle and confute his owne acknowledgement he that can slight his own conscience mock his Distaste Trifle with the wrath of God which he sees neer him and play at the very gates of Hell he that is in profundis in
their name calls them by one quite contrary Immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae aversarios Nazianz. or 14. the Enemies of Gods mercy and goodnesse and Nazianzen tells them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. and uncleannesse which had nothing but the name of Purity which they made saith he a bait to catch and cajol the ignorant and unwary multitude who are taken more with the Trumpet of a Pharisee then with his almes and are fed with shewes and pretenses as they say Camelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzen observe this severe Doctrine of these proud and covetous men did drive the offending Brethren into despair and despair did plunge them deeper in sin left them wallowing in the mire in their blood and pollution being held down by a false opinion that no hand could draw them out and that pardon was impossible whereas a Convertimini the Doctrine of Repentance might have raised them from the ground drawn them out of their blood and failth strengthned their feeble knees and hands hat hang down put courage and and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and stand up to see and meet the Salvation of the Lord. And this is the proper and Natural effect of mercy to give sight to the blinde that they may see to binde up a broken limb that it may move and to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this is shines in brightnesse upon us every day not onely to enlighten them who sit in darknesse but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darknesse yet may be under a cloud raise up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but a tender and humble Heart For we cannot think that every man that sayes he despairs is cast away and lost or that our erroneous Judgement of our state and condition shall be the rule by which God will proceed against us and Judge us at the last day that when we have set our hearts to serve him and have been serious in all our wayes when we have made good the condition i. e. our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentlenesse of the Gospel doth exact it he will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves and though we have done what is required perswade our selves that we are fallen so short in the performance of our duty that we shall never reach to the end in a word that he will forbear to pronounce the Euge well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works or put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholly fit or condemn the soul for the distemper of the body or some perturbation of the minde which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord and in the power of his spirit did cheerfully run the wayes of his Commandements It were a great want of Charity thus to Judge of those whose troublesome and most afflicting errour was conceived and formed in the very bowels of charity For sometimes it proceeds from the distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain and if we have formerly and do yet strive to do him service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it arises from some defect in the judicative faculty through which as we make more Laws to our selves and so more sins then there are so we are as ready to passe sentence against our selves not onely for the breach of those Laws which none could binde us to but our selves but even of those also which we were so careful to keep for as we see some men so strong or rather so stupid that they think they do nothing amisse so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves that they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but it is not Epidemical The first are a great multitude which 't is hard to number quocunque sub axe they are in every Climate and in every place but most often in the Courts of Princes and the habitations of the Rich who can do evil but will not see it who can make the loud condemnation of a fact and the bold doing it the businesse of one and the same hour almost of one and the same moment The other are not many for they are a part of that little Flock and the good Shepherd will not drive them out of the fold for the weak conceit they had that they had gone too far astray For errour is then most dangerous and fatal when we do that which is evil not when we shun and fly from it as from the plague and yet cannot beleeve we are removed far enough from the infection of it And therefore again it may have its Original not onely from the Acrasie and discomposedness of the outward-man or the weaknesse in Judgement or that ignorance of their present estate which may happen to good men even to those who have made some fair proficiency in the School of Christ and to which we are very subject amidst that variety of circumstances that perplexity and multiplicity of thoughts which rise and sink and return again and strangle one another to bring in others in their place but it may be brought in by our very care and diligence and an intensive love For care and diligence and love are alwayes followed with fears and jealousies love is ever a beginning till all be done and is but setting out till she be at her journeyes end The liberal man is afraid of his Almes and the Temperate mistrusts his abstinence the meek man is jealous of every heat pietas etiam tuta pertimescit piety is afraid even of safety it self because it is piety and cannot be safe enough And if it be a fault thus to undervalue himself it is a fault of a fair extraction begotten not by blood or the will of men not by negligence and wilfulnesse and the pollutions of the flesh but of care and anxiety and an unsatisfied love which will sometimes demur and be at a stand in the greatest Certainty so that though the lines be fallen to him in a faire place and he have a Goodly Heritage a well setled spiritual Estate yet he may sometimes look upon it as Bankrupts doe upon their temporall worne out Debts and Statutes and Mortgages and next to nothing Every man hath not a place and mansion in Heaven that pretends a Title to it nor is every man shut out that doubts of his evidence This diffidence in our selves is commonly the mark and Character of a Good man who would be better and though he hath
but one true principle of a real turn Septem men dacijseget mendacium unum ut verum videatur Luth. I de Jndulgent the fear of God there may be very many of a false one as Martin Luther sayd that one lie had need of seven more to draw but an apparency of truth over it that it may passe under that name so that which is not sincere is brought in with a troop of attendants like it self and must be set off with great diligence and art when that which is true commends it self and needs no other hand to paint or polish it What art and labor is required to smooth a wrinckled brow what ceremony what noise what trumpets what extermination of the countenance what sad looks what Tragical deportment must usher in an Hypocrite what a penance doth he undergoe that will be a Pharisee how many counterfeit sighs and forced grones how many Fasts how many Sermons must be the prologue to a false turn to a Nominal turn for we may call it turning from our evil wayes when we do but turn and look about us to secure our selves in them or to make way to worse Ahab and Jezebel did so Absolon did so the Jows did so Isa 58.4 Fast to smite with the fist of wickednesse and to make their voice to be heard on high A false turn wickednesse it self may work it crast and cruelty may blow the trumpet in Sion and sanctifie afast A feigned repentance Opression policy the love of the world sin it self may beget it and so advance and promote it self and be yet more sinsul and commonly a false turn makes the fairest shew Plin. Panegyr appears in greater glory to a carnal eye then a true ingeniosior ad excogitandum simulatio veritate for hypocrisie is far more witty seeks out more inventions and many times is more diligent and laborious then the truth because truth hath but one work to be what it is and takes no care for outward pomp and ostentation nor comes forth at any time to be seen unlesse it be to propagate it self in others Now by this we may judge of our turn whether it be right and natural or no For as we may make many a false turn so there may be many false springs or principles to set us a mourning sometimes fear may do it sometimes hope sometimes policy and in all the love of our selves more then of God and then commonly our Tragedy concludes in the first scene nay in the very prologue our Repentance is at an end in the very first turn Nemo potest personam diu ferre Ficta citò in naâ—urant suam recidunt Sen. 1. de Clem. c. 1. in the very first shew Ahabs Repentance a flash at the Prophets thunder Pharaohs Repentance drove on with an East-wind and compast about with locusts an inconstant false and desultory repentance I cannot better compare it then to those motions by water-works whilest the water runs the devise turns round and we have some History of the Bible presented to our eyes but when the water is run out all is at an end and we see that no more which took our eyes with such variety of action and so it is many times in our turn which is no better then a Pageant whilest the waters of affliction beat upon us we are in motion and we may present divers actions and signes of true Repentance Our eyes may gush out with tears we hang down our head and beat our breast our tongue our glory may awake and our hands may be stretched out to the poor we may cry peccavi with David we may put on sackcloth with Ahab we may go forth with Peter but when these waters of bitternesse are abated or cease then our motion faileth and our turn is at an end our tears are dried up and our tongue silent and our hands withered and it plainly appears that our Turn was but artificiall Hier. l. 2 cp 10 our motion counterfeit and our Repentance but a kinde of puppit-play malorum vestigia quasi in Salo posita fluctuant prolabuntur saith Jerom. The wicked walk in this world as on the waves of the sea they make a profer to go and walk but they soon sink and fall down their motion is wavering and inconstant and he gives the reason Fundamenta fidei solida non habent they have no sure grounding nor doth the love of goodnesse but some thing else thus startle and disquiet them in evil Sauls whining at Samuels reproof Ahabs mourning and humbling himself at Elijahs Prophesie Felix trembling at Pauls preaching were not voluntary and natural motions but beat out by the hammer The loss of a kingdome the destruction of a Family the fear of judgement may drive any Saul to his prayers cloath any Ahab with sackcloth and bring motum trepicationis a fit of trembling upon any Felix loose the joynts of any Heathen For as it is observ'd that the very Heathen retained some seeds of truth and although they had no full and perfect sight of it but saw it at a distance falsum tamen ab absurdo refutarunt yet condemned errour and falsehood by that absurdity which was visible enough and written as it were in its very fore-head so in the most rotten and corrupt hearts there are divinae Veritatis semina some seeds of saving knowledge but choked and stifled with the love of vanity and the cares of this world and though they do not hate sin yet the horrour of sin or that smart which it brings along with it makes them sometimes turn away and make a seeming flight from that sin which they cannot hate What therefore the Philosopher speaks of friendship is here very appliable that friendship is most lasting which hath the best and furest ground which is built and raised upon vertue Arist Eth. 8. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the friendship of wicked men is as unconstant and unstable as themselves for they want that goodnesse which is the confirmation and bond of love If it rise from pleasure that 's a thinner vapour then a mans life and it appears a lesse time and then vanisheth away and the friend goes with it if you lay it on riches they have wings and that love which was tied to them flies away with them Nothing can give it a sure and firme being but that piety which is as lasting as the Heavens profit and pleasure and by-respects are but threads of towe and when these are broken then they who had but one minde and soul are two again And so also it is with us in our converse and walking with our God whose friends we are if we keep his sayings if the love of his name be as it were the form and principle that moves and carries us towards him if we turn in his Name but if we do it upon those false grounds upon such motives which will rather change our countenance and gesture then
our minds and make us seem good for a while Mali non apparent ut plus liceat malignari Bern. in Cant. 6.6 to be worse for ever after if we vomit up our sin to ease our stomack and then lick it up again if we turn that the flying book of curses overtake us not we then give him but a single turn nay the shadow of a turn for a double call our Conversion is not Syncere and True there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something to strengthen it that which will make us like him will knit and unite us to him our Repentance must be fully sormea in our hearts before it speak in sorrow or be powred forth in Teares or hang down the head at a Fast before it take the poenitentiall Habit our Turne must be begun and continued by Faith and Obedience and then we shall not onely be Baptized in the Teares of our Repentance but withall receive our Confirmation And let us thus Turne For first False Repentance is a sinne greater then that I Turne from because to make a shew of Hatred to that I most love is to love it still and make my guilt greater by an Additionall lye to seem to be sorry for that I delight in to forsake that I cleave to to renounce that which I embrace to Turn from that which I follow after which makes our Condition in some respects worse than that of the Atheist For we doe not onely deny God but deny him with a mock which is a greater sinne then not to Think of him If we Profess we Turne and yet runne on we sin in professing that which we do not and we sin in not doing that which we professe If we professe we do it why then doe we it not and if we doe it not why doe we profess it A shew of what I should be accuseth me for not being what I shew as we see the Ape appeares more deformed and ridiculous because 't is like a man and a Strumpet is never more despicable then in a Matrons stole as Nazianzen speaks of Women that paint themselves Naz. or 19. A Gel. Noct. Attic. l 1.2 Aristippus in purp urâ sub magnà gravitatis specie ne potatur Tert. Apol. 46. Athenaei Deipnos l. 13. c. 1. Aristoph Eupolis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Beauty shews them more deformed because 't is Counterfeit They very heathen could say Odi homines Philosophâ sententiâ ignavâ operâ I hate those men who are Stoicks in word and Epicures in Deed whose virtue is nothing else but a bare sentence in Philosophy with some advantage from the Gowne and Beard Sopbocles who had no more chastity then what he was to thank his Old Age for yet could lash and with great bitterness reproach Euripides and passe this censure upon him That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was very bitter against women in his Tragedies but more kinde then was fitting in his Chamber The Comedians to make Socrates ridiculous to the People bring him upon the Stage measuring the leaps of Fleas and disputing and putting it to the Question what part it was they made a noise at but never thought he had sufficiently exposed him to laughter till he brought him in discoursing of Virtue and in his very Lecture of Morality stealing a peece of Plate For he knew nothing could be more absurd then for a Philosopher to play the Thief and then too when he was prescribing the rules of Honesty Now if the very Pagans by the light of Nature could condemne Hypocrisy by their very scorne and deride and hate it no sentence can be severe enough against it in a Christian because the Abuse of Goodnesse is farre the greater by how much the goodnesse which is abus'd is more Excellent and levell'd to a better End and therefore a formal Penitent is the grossest Hypocrite in the world Besides this in the Second place God who is Truth it self stands in extreme opposition to all that is feigned and counterfeit An Almes with a Trumpet a Fast with a sowre face devotion that devoures Widows Houses do more provoke him to wrath then those vices which these outward Formalities seem to cry down Nothing is more distastfull to him then a mixt compounded Christian made up of a bended knee and a stiff neek of an attentive care and a Hollow heart of a pale Countenance and a rebellious Spirit of Fasting and Oppression of Hearing and Deceit of Cringes and bowings and flatteries and reall disobedience Absolon's vow Jehu's sacrifices Simon Magus his Repentance Ahab's Fast Non amat salsum eutor veritans Adulteriam est apud illum omne quod Fingitur Tert de Ep. c. 23. his soul doth hate or any Devil that puts on Samuel's Mantle and he so farre detests the meere outward performance of a Religious Duty that when he thunders from heaven when he breathes out his menaces and Threatnings on the greatest sinners The burden is they shall have their portion with Hypocrites In the 20. Chapter of Exedas at the 25. verse we reade Non ascendet super Altare securis Thou shalt not build an Altar of Hewen stone nor shalt thou lift up a Toole upon it why not lift a Toole upon it They used the Hatchet saith Nazianzen to build the Ark to srame the staves of Chittim wood they wrought in Gold and silver and Brasse with Iron Instruments They put a Knife to the Throat of the Sacrifice yet here to life up a Toole upon any stone of the Altar is to pollute it and why not pollute the Arke as well as the Altar the Father gives the Reason The stones of the Altar were by the Providence of God and a kind of miracle found fitted already for that work Eaz Orat. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because saith he whatsoever is consecrate to God must not borrow from the help of Art must not be Artificiall but Naturall If we build an Altar unto God to sacrifice our selves on the stones must be naturally fitted not he wen out by Art not a forced Grone a forc'd acknowledgement artificiall Teares but such as Nature sendeth forth when our grief is True To avoid this Danger then let us ask our selves the Question whether we have gone further in our Turne then an Ahab or an Herod or a Simon Magus and even by their feigned Turne learn to make up ours in Truth For did Ahab mourn and put on Sackcloth did Herod heare John Baptist and heare him gladly did Simon Magus desire Peter to prya for him even then when he was in the Gall of bitternesse what anxiety what contritiion must perfect my conversion si tanti vitrum quanti margarita if glasse cast such a brightnesse what must the lustre of a diamond be Aristot Metaph. 2. And thus may we make use even of hypocrifie it self to establish our selves in the truth make Ahab and Herod arguments and motives to make our Repentance sure
will confess with Achan build an altar with David throw this Jonah over-board cast this sin out of my soul that God may turn from his fierce wrath and shine once again both upon my Tabernacle and upon the Nation But in the last place if his anger be not hot enough in his temporal punishments it will hereafter boyl and reake in a Cauldron of unquenchable fire he will punish thee eternally for any one sin habituated in thee which thou hast not turned from by Repentance Saint Basil makes the punishment not onely infinite in duration but in degrees and increase and was of opinion that the paines of the damned are every moment intended and augmented according as even one sin may spread it self from man to man from one generation to another even to the worlds end by its venemous contagion and ensample Think we as meanly and slightly as we will swallow it without fear live in it without sense yet thus it may for ought we can say to the contrary multiply and increase both it self and our punishment and this of Saint Basil may be true My love of the world may kindle my anger my anger may end in murder my murder may beget a Cain and Cain a Lamech and from Cain by a kinde of propagation of sin may proceed a blody race throughout all generations and I shall be punisht for Cain and punisht for Lameoh and as many as the contagion of my sin shall reach and I shall be punished for my own sins and I shall be pinished for my other mens sins as Father Latimer speaks and my punishment shall be every moment infinitely and infinitely multiplied and increased a heavie and sad consideration it is and very answerable and proportionable to this loud and vehement ingemination Convertimini Convertimini Turn ye Turn ye able to turn us and so to turn us that we may turn from every evil way The fourth property of our Turn it must be final carried on to the end Our turn then must be true and sincere and it must be universal we must turn with all our Heart and turn from all our sins there is yet one property more one thing more required that it be final that we hold it on unto the end for without this the other three are lost the speedinesse the sincerity the universality of our Repentance are of no force which though it were true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of its essential parts and in respect of its latitude and extent yet is it not true in respect of its duration unlesse we Turn once for all and never fall back upon those paths out of which horrour grief and disdain did drive us it may work our peace and reconcile us for a time but if we fail and fall back even our turn our former Repentance forsakes us and mercy it self withdraws and leaves us under that wrath which we were fled from And therefore in our turn this must go along with us and continue the motion the consideration of the great hazard we run when we turn from our evil wayes and then turn back again For first as a pardon doth nullifie former sinnes so it maketh our sins which we commit afterwards more grievous and fatal and as it is observed that it is the part of a wise friend etiam leves suspiciones fugere to shun the least suspicion of offence Hier. ad pau mach marcel ne quod fortuito fecit consultò facere videretur lest what might formerly be imputed to chance or infirmity may now seem to proceed from wilfulnesse so when we turn and God is pleased so far to condescend as to take us to his favour and of enemies not onely make us his servants but call us his friends it will then especially concern us to abstain from all appearance of evil to suspect every object as the devils lurking place in which he lies in wait to betray us lest we may seem to have begged pardon of our sins not out of hatred but out of love unto them and to have left our sins for a time to commit them afresh We are bound now not only in a bond of common duty but of gratitude for his free favour is Numella as a clog or yoke to chain and fetter and restrain us from sin that we commit not that every day for which we must beg pardon every day A reason of this we may draw from the very love of God for the anger of God in a manner is the effect and product of his love He is Angry if we sin because he loved us he is displeased when we yeeld to Temptations because he loved us and his Anger is the hotter because his love was excessive As the Husband which most affectionately loves the Wife of his youth and would have her be as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe Prov. 5.19 but to himself alone will not allow so much love from her as may be conveighed in a look or the glance of an eye is jealous of her very looks of her deportment of her garments and will have her to behave her self with that Modesty and strangeness ut quisquis videat metuat accedere that no man may be so bold as to come so neer as to ask the question or make mention of love and all because he most affectionately loves her So much nay farr greater is the love of God to our soules which he hath married unto himself in whom he desires to dwell and take delight and so dearly he loves them that he will not divide with the World and the Flesh but is straight in Passion if we cast but a favourable ook or look friendly upon that sin by which we first offended him if we come but neer to that which hath the shew of a Rival or Adversary but if we let our Desires loose and fall from him and Embrace the next Temptation which wooes us then he counts us guilty of spirituall whoredome and Adultery His jealousie is cruel as the Grave and this Jealousie which is an effect of his love shall smoake against us First it was Love and Jealousie lest we might tender cur service to strange gods cast our Affections upon false Riches and deceitfull pleasures and now we have left Life for Death preferred that which first wounded us before him that cured us it is Anger and Indignation that he should lose us whom he so loved that wee should fling him off who so loved us That he should create and then lose us and afterwards purchase and redeeme us and make us his againe and we should have no understanding but run back againe from him into Captivity For in the Second place as our sinnes are greater after reconcilement so if they doe not cancell the former Pardon as some are unwilling to grant yet they call those sinnes to remembrance which God cast behind his back For as good Works are destroyed by sinne and revive againe by Repentance so
many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods for though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still 2 Cor. 5.11 as terrible to sinners that will not Turne as when he thundred from Mount Sinai and if we will not know and understand these Terrors of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing Letter For again as Humane Laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment and to this end we finde not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna Juvenal That there remained punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen and we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the World had been far more wicked then it is we see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunts and pursues them This may be so there is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sinne and this though it do not make them good yet it restraines them from being worse quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium freedom from punishment makes sin pleasant and delightsome and so makes it more sinful but the fear of punishment makes it irksome brings those reluctancies nd gnawings those rebukes of Conscience for without it there could be none at all till the whip is held up there is honey on the Harlots lips and we would taste them often but that they bite like a Cockatrice 1 Pet. 5.6 non timemus peccare timemus ardere it is no sin we so much startle at but Hell fire is too hot for us And therefore Saint Peter when he would work repentance and Humility in us placeth us under Gods hand Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his power his commanding Attribute his Omniscience findes us out his Wisdom accuseth us his Justice condemns us potentia punit but 't is his hand his power that punisheth us Psal 78.34 Take away his hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his wisdome or tarrieth for the twi-light to shun his alseeing eye but cum occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God Early Again as the fear of death may be as Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an Antidote and preservative against it it may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way as it is an introduction to piety Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gr. Nyssen a watch a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offence make me turn back again into my evil waies For we must not think that when we are Turned from our evill wayes we have left feare behind us no she may goe along with us in the wayes of Righteousnesse and whisper us in the eare that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared she is our Companion and she leaves us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our Journeys end Our love such as it is may well consist with Feare Chrysost l. 1. de compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Feare of Judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysost the memory of Gods Judgements written in his very heart his thoughts were busied with it his Meditations fixt here and it forced from him à Domine nè in furore Correct me not O Lord in thy angeer nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walkt in the bitterness of his soul did mourne like a Dove Isa 38.14 and chatter like a Crane Saint Paul builds up a Tribunal and calls all men to behold it Rom. 14.10 Wee shall all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ Saint Hierom had the last Trump alwayes sounding in his eares and declaring to Posterity the strictnesse of his life his Teares his fasting his solitarinesse confesses of himself Hier. 1. Tom. ep 141. Ille ego qui ob Gehennae metum tali me carcere damnaveram Scorpiorum tantum socius ferarum I that condemned my self to so straight a prison as to have no better companions then Scorpions and wild Beasts for fear of Hell and Judgement did all this and was not ashamed to acknowledge that not so much the love unto it nor the Author of it as the dread of Hell and punishment confin'd and kept him constant in the practise of it And what should I say more for the time would faile me to tell you of other Saints of God who through feare wrought Righteousness obtained Promises out of weakness were made strong Behold love in its highest elevation in its very Zenith behold it when it was stronger then Death look upon the Glorious Army of Martyrs they had tryall of cruell mockings and scouragings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonment they were stoned and slaine with the sword And greater love then this hath no man saith our Saviour then this that a man lay downe his life for his friend and yet Saint Ambrose upon the 118. Psalme will tell us that this great love was upheld and kept in life by this gale of wind by Feare That the feare of one Death was swallowed up in the feare of another the feare of a temporall ion the feare of an Eternal The bloody Pagans to weaken their faith Pont. Diac. vit Cypr. urged the feare of present Death Consule tibi Noli animam tuam perdere favour your self cast not away your life Reverence your age and these they thought suggestions strong enough to shake their Constancy and Resolution but the consideration of the wrath of God and eternall separation from him did strengthen and establish them what is my breath to Eternity what is the fire of Persecution to the fury of Gods wrath what is the rack to hell sic animas posuerunt and with these Thoughts they laid down their lives and were
hugg themselves in it are very weak even Children in understanding Gerson the devour Schoolman tells us Mulieres omnes propter infirmitaetem consilii mâ—jores nostri in Tutorum potestate esse voluerunt Cicero pro Mutaena it is most commonly in Women quarum aviditas pertinacior in assectu fragilior in cognitione Whose affections commonly outrunne their understanding who affect more then they know and are then most enflamed when they have least light and it is in men too and too many who are as fond of their groundless Fancies and ill-built Opinions as the weaknesse of that sex could possibly make them are as weak as the weakest of women and have more need of the bitt and Bridle then the Beasts that perish what greater weaknesse can there be then to follow a blind guide and deliver our selves up to our Fancy and affective Notions and make them Masters of our Reason and the only Interpreters of that word which should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathes For if we check not our Fancy and Affections they will run madding after shadows and apparitions They will shew us nothing but Peace in the Gospel nothing but Love in Christianity Nothing but Joy in the Holy Ghost They will set our Love and Joy on Wheeles and then we are straight carried up to Heaven in these siery Chariots One is Elioas Another John Baptist Another Christ himself If the Virgin Mary have an Exultat they have a Iubilee If Saint Paul be in the Spirit They are above it and right Reason too and the Spirit is theirs if he put on that shape which best likes them If he be a Spirit of Counsel we are his Secretaries of his Closet and can tell what he did before all Times and Number over his Decrees at our Fingers ends If a Spirit of strength we bid defiance to Principalities and Powers If a Spirit of Wisedome we are filled with him the wise-men the sages of the World though no man could ever say so but our selves If a Spirit of Ioy we are in an Extasy if of Love we are on fire But if he be Spiritus Timoris a Spirit of Feare there we leave him and are at Ods with him we seem to know him not and we cannot Feare at all because we are bold to think that wee have the Spirit 'T is true whilst we stand thus affected a Spirit we have but 't is a Spirit of illusion which troubles and distorts our Intellectualls and makes us look upon the Gospel ex adverso situ on the wrong side on that which may seem to flatter our infirmities but not on that which may cure them and as Tully told his friend That he did not know Totum Caesarem all of Caesar so we know not totum Christum all of Christ wee know and consider him as a Saviour but not as a LORD wee know him in the Riches of his Promises but not in the Terror of his Judgements know him in that life he purchas'd for Repentant sinners but not in that death he threatens to Unbeleevers For to let passe the Law of works Heb. 12.20 we dare not come so neere as to touch at that for we cannot endure that which was commanded Let us well weigh and consider the Gospel it self which is the Law of Faith was not that establish'd and confirmed with promises of Eternal life and upon penalty of Eternall Death In the Gospel we are told of weeping and gnashing of Teeth of a condition worse them to the a Mill-stone hanged about our necks and to be throwne into the bottom of the Sea and by no other then by the Prince of Peace then by Christ himself who would never have put this feare in us if he had knowne that our Love had had strength enough to bring us to him And therefore in the Tenth of St. Matthews Gospel at 28. verse he teacheth us how we shall feare Rectâ methodo he teacheth us to be perfect methodists in Fear that we misplace not our Feare upon any Earthly Power he sets up a Ne Timete Feare not them that can kill the Body and when they have done that have done all and can do no more and having taken away one feare he establisheth another But feare him who can both cast Body and Soul into Hell fire and that we might not forget it for such troublesome guests lodge not long in our memory he drives it home with an Etiam Dico Yea I say unto you feare him Now Him denotes a Person and no more and then our feare may be Reverence and no more It may be Love it may be Fancy it may be nothing but qui potest is equivalent to quia potest and is the reason why we must feare him even because he can punish And this I hope may free us from the Imputation of sinne if our Love be blended with some Feare and if in our Obedience we have an eye to the hand that may strike us as well as to that which may fill us with good things and if Christ who is the Wisedome of the Father think it fit to make the Terror of Death an argument to move us we cannot have Folly laid to our charge if we be moved with the Argument Fac Fac saith Saint Austin vel timore poenae si non Potes adhuc amore justitiae Doe it man Doe it if thou canst not yet for Love of Justice yet for fear of punishment I know that of Saint Austin is true Brevis differentia legis Evangelii Amor Timor Love is proper to the Gospel and Feare to the Law but 't is Feare of Temporall punishment not of Eternall for that may sound to both but is loudest in the Gospel The Law had a whip to fright us and the Gospel hath a Worm to Gnaw us I know that the Beauty of Christ in that great Work of Love the work of our Redemption should transport us beyond our selves and make us as the Spouse in the Canticles is said to be even sick with love but we must consider not what is due to Christ but what we are able to pay him and what he is willing to Accept not what so great a Benefit might challenge at our hands but what our Frailty can lay downe for we are not in Heaven already but passing towards it with Feare and trembling And he that brings forth a Christian in these colours of Love without any mixture of Feare doth but as it was said of the Historian votum accomodare non historiam present us rather with a wish then an History and Character out the Christian as Xenophon did Cyrus Non qualis est sed qualis esse deberet not what he is but what he should be I confesse thus to fear Christ thus to be urged and chased to Happinesse is an Argument of Imperfection but we are Men not Angels We are not in heaven already we are not yet perfect and
therefore have need of this kind of remedy as much need certainly as our first Parents had in Paradise who before they took the forbidden fruit might have seen Death written and engraved on the Tree and had they observ'd it as they ought to have done had not forfeited the Garden for one Apple had this Feare walked along with them before the coole of the Day before the rushing wind they had not heard it nor hid themselves from God in a word had they Feared they had not fell for they fell with this Thought that they should not fall that they should not die at all Imperfection though it be to Feare yet 't is such an Imperfection that leads to perfection Imperfection though it be to Feare yet I am sure it is a greater Imperfection to sin and not to feare It might be wished perhapps that we were tyed and knit unto our God quibusdam internis commerciis as the devout School-man speaks with those inward ligaments of Love and Joy and Admiration that we had a kind of familiar acquaintance and intercourse with him That as our Almes and Prayers and fasting came up before him to shew him what we do on earth so there were no imper fection in us but that God might approach so nigh unto us with the fulness of Joy to tell us what he is preparing for us that neither the Feare of Hell nor the Hope of Heaven and our Salvation but the Love of God and Goodnesse were the only cause of our cleaving to him That we might love God because he is God and hate sinne because it is sinne and for no other reason that we might with Saint Paul wish the increase of Gods Glory though with that heavy condition of our own Reprobation But this is such an Heroick spirit to which every man cannot rise though he may at last rise as high as Heaven this is such a condition which we can hardly hope for whilst we are in the flesh we are in the body not out of the body we struggle with doubts and difficulties Ignorance and Infirmity are our Companions in our way and in this our state of Imperfection contenti simus hoc Catone Dictum Augusti cum hortaretur ferenda esse praesentia qualiacunque sunt Suet. Octav. August c. 87. we must be content to use such means and Helpes as the Law-giver himself will allow of and not cast off fear upon a Fancy that our Love is perfect for this savours more of an Imaginary Metaphysicall subtility of a kind of extaticall affectation of Piety then the plaine and solid knowledge of Christian Religion but continue our Obedience and carry on our perseverance with the Remembrance of our last end with this consideration That as under the Law there was a curse pronounced to them that fulfill it not so under the Gospel there is a flaming fire to take vengeance of them that obey it not 2. Thess 1.8 It was a good censure of Tully which he gave of Cato in one of his Epistles Thou canst not saith he to his friend love and Honor Cato more then I doe but yet this I observe in him optimo animo utens summâ fide nocet interdum Reip. he doth endammage the Common-wealth but with an Honest mind and great Fidelity l. 2. ad Attic. ep 1. for he gives sentence as if he lived in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Platonis non in faece Romuli in Plato's Common-wealth and not in the dreggs and Rascaltry of Romulus And we may passe the same censure on these seraphical Perfectionists who will have all done out of pure Love nothing out of Feare They remember not that they are in fraece Adami the off-spring of an Arch-Rebell that their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite and that the want of this Feare threw them from that state of Integrity in which they were created and by that out of Paradise and so with great ostentation of love hinder the Progresse of Piety and setting up to themselves an Idaea of Perfection take off our Feare which should be as the hand to wind up the Plummet which should continue the motion of our Obedience the best we can say of them is summâ fide pio animo nocent Ecclesiae If their mind be pious and answer the great shew they make then with a Pious mind they wrong and trouble the Church of Christ For suppose I were a Paul and did love Christ as Cato did Virtue because I could no otherwise Nunquam recte fecit ut faces videretur sed quià aliter facere non poterat Vell. ratere l. 2. Hist suppose I did feare sinne more then Hell and had rather be damned then commit it suppose that every thought word and worke were Amoris foetus the issues of my Love yet I must not upon a speciall favour build a general Doctrine and because love is best make Feare unlawfull make it sinne to feare that punishment the Feare of which might keep me from sinne for this were in Saint Pauls phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put a stumbling-block in our Brothers way with my love to overthrow his feare that so at last both Feare and Love may fall to the ground for is there any that will fear sinne for punishment if it be a sinne to Feare What 's the language of the world now we heare of nothing but filiall feare and it were a good hearing if they would understand themselves for this doth not exclude the other but is upheld by it we are as sure of happinesse as we are of Death but are more perswaded of the Truth of the one then of the other more sure to goe to heaven then to die and yet Death is the gate which must let us in we are already partakers of an Angelicall Estate we prolong our life in our own Thoughts to a kind of Eternity and yet can feare nothing we challenge a kind of familiarity with God and yet are willing to stay yet a while longer from him we sport with his Thunder and play with his Hayl-stones and Coales of fire we entertain him as the Roman Gentleman did the Emperor Augustus Macrobius in Saturnal coenâ parcâ quasi quotidianâ with course and Ordinary fare as Saul in the 15. of the first of Sam. with the vile and refuse not with the fatlings and best of the sheep and Oxen Did we dread his Majesty or think he were Jupiter vindex a God of Revenge with a Thunder-bolt in his hand we should not be thus bold with him but feare that in wrath and Indignation he should reply as Augustus did Non putaram me tibi fuisse tam familiarem I did not think I had made my self so familiar with my Creature I know the Schools distinguish between a servile and Initial and a Filial feare there is a Feare by which we feare not the fault but the punishment and a feare which feareth the punishment
a man that will not set forward in his journey for feare of some Lion some perillous Beast some horrible hardship in the way and this is true but not ad textum nor doth it reach Saint Iohns meaning which may be gathered out of the third Chapter and 16. verse where he makes it the duty of Christians to lay down their lives for the Brethren as Christ laid down his life for them and this we shall be ready to doe if our love be perfect cast off all feare and lay downe our lives for them For true love will suffer all things and is stronger then Death but love doth not cast out the feare of Gods wrath for this doth no whit impaire our love to him but is rather the means to improve it when we doe our duty we have no reason to feare his Anger but yet we must alwayes feare him that we may goe on and persevere unto the end he will not punish us for our Obedience and so we need not feare him but if we break it off he will punish us and this thought may strengthen and establish us in it Let us therefore Feare lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should come short of it Heb. 4.1 But we may draw an answer out of the words themselves as they lie in the Text for 't is true indeed Charity casteth out all feare but not simul semel not at once but by degrees As that waxeth our feare waines as that gathers strength our feare is infeebled perfecta foras mittit when our Love is perfect it casteth it out quite If our Sanctification were as total as it is universal were our obedience like that of the Angels and could never fail we should not then need the sight of Heaven to allure us or Gods Thunder to affright us but it being onely in part though in every part the best of Christians in this state of imperfection may look up upon the Moriemini make use of a Deaths-head and make Gods Promises and Threatnings as subordinate meanes to concurre with the principall as the Butteresses to help to support the building that it do not swerve whilst the foundation of love and Faith keep it that it do not sink For a strange thing it may seem that when with great zeal we cry down that perfection of degrees and admit of none but that of parts we should be so refin'd and sublimate as not to admit of the least tincture and admission of Feare Now in the next place as Feare may consist with love so it may with Faith and with Hope it self which seems to stand in oppositition with it For first Faith apprehends all the Attributes of God and eyes his threatnings as well as his Promises and God hath establisht and fenc'd in his Precepts with them both if he had not proposed them both as objects for our Faith why doth he yet complain why doth he yet threaten And if we will observe it we shall find some Impressions of Feare not onely in the Decalogue but in our Creed Iudicare vivos mortuos to judge both the quick and the dead are words which sound with terror and yet an Article of our Belief And we must not think it concerns us to beleeve it and no more Agenda and credenda are not at such a distance but that we may learne our Practiques in our Creed His Omnipotence both comforts and affrights me his Mercy keeps me from despaire and his Justice from presumption but then his coming to judge both the quick and the dead is my sollicitude my anxiety my feare Nor must we Imagine that because the Faith which gives assent to these Truths may be meerly Historical this Article concerns the justifyed Person no more then a bare Relation or a history for the Feare of Judgement is so farre from destroying Faith in the justifyed person that it may prove a soveraigne meanes to preserve it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Ps 32. as Basil speaks to order and compose our Faith which is ready enough to take an unkind heat if feare did not coole and Temper it In Prosperity David is at his non movebor Ps 30.6 I shall never be moved Before the storme came Peter was so bold as to dare and challenge all the Temptations that could assault him Etsi omnes non ego although all men deny thee yet not I and was puzled Matth. 26. and fell back at two or three words from a silly Maid To keep us from such distempers it will be good to set Gods judgements alwayes before our eyes And as Faith so Hope which is as the blood of the soule to keep it in life and cheerfulness may be over-heated our Expectation may prove unsavoury if it be not season'd with some graines of this salt and Hope like strong wine may intoxicate and stupify our sense if as with water we doe not mixe and temper it with this Fear Psal 115.11 And therefore the Prophet David makes a rare composure of them both Timentes Confidite ye that Fear the Lord trust in the Lord as if where there were no fear there were no confidence and without feare there were a strange Ataxie and disorder in the soul and our hope would breath out it self and be no more Hope but presumption Navigamus saith Saint Hierom spei velo we hoyse up the sayles of Hope now if the sayles be too full there may be as much danger in the sayle as in a Rock and not onely a Temptation but our hope may wrack us Then our Hope Sayles on in an even Course when feare as a contrary wind shortens and stayes her then inter sinus scopulos Psal 115.11 Tert. de Idol c. ult she passeth by every Rock and by every reach tuta si cauta secura si sollicita safe if wary and secure if sollicitous To recollect all and conclude Thus may Feare temper our Love that it be not too bold our faith that it be not too forward and our hope that it be not too confident make our Love Reverent our Faith discreet and our hope cautelous that so we may goe on in a strait and even course with all the Riches and substance of our Faith from Virtue to Virtue from one degree of perfection to another I made Feare but a Buttresse Tert. de cult Foem c. 2. Tertullian calls it Fundamentum the Foundation of these three Theological Virtues Faith Hope and Charity and when is the Foundation most necessary not when the Timber is squaring and the walls rising but when it is Arched and vaulted and compact by its several contignations and made into an house Then not the Raine and the wind and the floods but if the Foundation be not sure mole suâ ruit it s own weight will shake and disjoynt and throw it downe Then when we are shap't and framed and built up to be Temples of the
large for this excuse to palliate and cover For 1. By this their abstaining they do either pity or condemn those that are more forward as those that venture too far upon that formidable mystery which they look upon at distance and tremble and dare not come neere as those that do not well consider what they do and therefore are bold to do it as men whom not conscience but presumption brings to the Altar They will say perhaps they passe no such censure on their brethren they condemn them not but yet they may and speak not a word condemn them by their actions as Noah did condemn the world by his faith for when in our behaviour we turn our back upon them there is something of a sharpe reprehension flyes from us like an arrow from a Parthians bow after those who walk another way And this utterly is a fault by my not eating to condemn them that eat This is contristari fratres this is to grieve our brethren to make them think that mors in olla that death is in the pot danger in eating the Bread of life this is to walk uncharitably and for ought we know to destroy him with our not eating for whom Christ dyed Or 2ly Their refraining to come may keep others at the same distance and it is not easy to determine utrùm pejor us an pejori exemplo agatur as Cato speaks to another purpose in Livy whether is more dangerous their absence to themselves or the example to others For if Moses turn his back who will not be afraid to come neere to the mount If men of more reserved conversation who keep themselves unspotted of the world tremble and dare not come nigh how may many weak Christians who hope here to receive their additionall strength be struck with terror and so refuse to come and think of these mysteries as the Germans in Tacitus did of those offices which they performed to their Goddesse Hertha the earth The Goddesse was washed and they who ministred unto her were swallowed up in the same lake Arcanus hinc terror sanctaque Tacitus ignorantia saith the Historian quid sit illud quod tantùm perituri vident Hence a secret terror and holy ignorance possest them who wondred what that divine power should be which none could see but they who were to perish in the sight for minister to it was to dye I know we cannot give too much reverence unto it we cannot give enough but that servant doth but little honour his master who will bow and cringe and kisse his hand and keep at distance and yet sleep in his service Obedience and reverence are twins they are borne and grow up and dye together I am not truly reverent till my obedience speaks and publisheth it and if I obey not my reverence is but a name and it profiteth nothing as Saint Paul spake in another case If be a breaker of the law my Circumcision is made uncircumcision If I doe not come as Christ commands I may call it reverence but he will count it a great dishonour to his love We complaine much of the superstition of the Romish party we are angry with their Altars their vestments their bowings and cringes and count it a kind of Theatricall Idolatry and I think without breach of Charity we may for as they make it it is one of the greatest Idols in the world but we must take heed how we cry down superstition in others whilst we suffer it to lye at our own doores how we condemn it as a monster as it walks abroad when we hug and cherish it in our own breasts Superstâ—tio error insanus est amandos timet quos colit violat Quid enim interest utrum Deos neges an infames Sen. ep 123. For what is superstition but a groundlesse feare what is it but a feare where no feare is or if there be a feare which we are bound to abolish A feare to doe our duty is something worse then superstition and if we doe not make the Sacrament an Idol yet by this kind of lazy reverence we make it nothing in this world and as much as in us lyes frustrate the grace of God which in these outward elements is presented in a manner to the eye I have dwelt the longer on this subject because I see this duty so much neglected some not fit to come others not so much unfit as unwilling some so spirituall or rather so carnall and profane that they contemn it some so careless that they seldome think on t but suffer their soule to run to ruine not to be raiss'd and repaired till it be taken from them some pleading their own infirmity others the high dignity of these mysteries the best of which pretenses is a sinne which one would think we but a hard and uneasie pillow for a sick conscience to rest on Not come because I care not not come because I will not not come because I dare not not come That utterly is a fault and neglect doth aggrandize it contempt doth make it yet greater and infirmity and conceit of our unworthinesse is another fault and our high esteeme of the Ceremony cannot wipe it out but it shewes it self even through this reverence and shewes us guilty of the Body and bloud of Christ though we eat not this Bread nor drink this cup we pretend indeed we cannot but the truth is we will not come Let us not then bring in our unworthinesse as an excuse for such an Apology is our doome which we passe against our selves which removes and sets us a farre off from any relief of that mercy which should seale our pardon because we say we need it not we ought not to doe what we ought to doe and we are unworthy to doe our duty is brought in as an excuse but it is our condemnation Let us then doe it and let us doe it often and in the last place let us doe it to that end for which he did first institute and ordaine it Let us doe it in remembrance of him And now we may imagine that this is a thing soon done a matter of quick dispatch for as the Jewes had Moses so have we Christ read in our Churches every Sabbath day he is the story the discourse of the times and we name him almost as often as we speak and too often name him but not with that reverence which we should but thus to remember him may be a greater injury then forgetfulnesse and better we never knew him then thus to remember him And therefore we must remember that this remembrance consists not in a bare calling back into our mind every passage of his glorious Oeconomy by bringing him from his cratch to his crosse and from his crosse to his grave for words of knowledge in scripture evermore imply the affections when Joseph desired Pharaohs Butler to remember him his meaning was he should procure his liberty when Nehemiah prayes to